Whether a pesticide is toxic to bees or not would seem to be a straightforward question, easily resolved in science laboratories using standard assays and techniques.

But honey bees aren’t in any way “standard” insects economically, culturally, or biologically.

The steadily increasing numbers of active ingredients in use by growers over time raises the likelihood that toxins will be consumed together, increasing the potential for synergism, interactions that can make a combination of chemicals more toxic than the sum of their individual toxicities.

…

Several bee researchers, including Harry Siviter at the University of Texas in Austin, have called for an overhaul of how pesticides are regulated, following the lead of agencies that oversee approval of new drugs – post-license monitoring for signals of real-world problems as the final step in the regulatory process (called proactive pharmacovigilance by the pharmaceutical industry).

In other words, pesticides, like drugs, should be tested in the real world prior to widespread release to uncover synergistic interactions, unanticipated problems with delivery systems, and every other issue that has led to lawsuits for more than a century.

Achieving this level of oversight, based on decades of lessons learned the hard way about pesticide risks, would be worthy of future headlines indeed.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here.